


Eduard the Eldritch Abomination

by RosieTheRo



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Eldritch Horror AU, Gen, Monstertalia, friendly monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 19:19:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4491627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosieTheRo/pseuds/RosieTheRo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He could remove all of existence with a single thought. Or, he could help out a mortal man with his anxiety issues. The latter was much more appealing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eduard the Eldritch Abomination

Eduard liked to keep his bangs long and straight, down to his brow line. It was a nice look, he thought, professional and neat. Plus, it had the added bonus of covering up the third eye that sat in the middle of his forehead. That single jet-black eye, with no distinction between sclera, iris, and pupil, was the one feature that hinted at his true form. No matter what body he chose, it was always there, ever open, never blinking, seeing everything. _Literally_ everything, everything that ever happened, would happen, could happen, or was happening, he saw _everything._

It was enough to drive any mortal mad. Even a mortal who looked into his third eye for long enough would soon lose their mind. Fortunately, Eduard was not mortal.

Looking at him, one wouldn't assume Eduard Von Bock was an interdimensional god-monster with powers beyond any known concepts of space and time, and he preferred to keep it that way. Mortal beings tended to become quite terrified when met with a creature that could not only bend the very rules of existence to his will, but could also _end_ all of existence with a single thought if he wanted to. Fortunately for everyone and everything to have ever been born or created, Eduard was quite fond of existence, and didn't have any plans to end it at all in the foreseeable future (which, keep in mind, was all of eternity for him).

He liked to slip into these smaller parts of existence sometimes, take on a body and a name and live like a mortal, not only to observe those "lesser" than him, but become one of them. He'd lived countless mortal lives, some good, some bad, some alone, some with hundreds of friends, some ending peacefully, some ending violently. This life, he picked a world called Earth, a species called humans, the name Eduard Von Bock, and settled in. No one really noticed when a new guy suddenly appeared in the apartment complex or at the office. He paid his rent, did his job, was quite friendly and talented, no one thought to check who exactly he was or where he'd come from.

There was one human who knew, if only for an instant, what he truly was, and that was Toris. The two met at the job Eduard took, an engineering design company. Toris's cubicle was next to Eduard's, and they became fast friends, almost as if they'd known each other their whole lives.

It was after a couple years working at the office when Eduard showed Toris what he was.

Eduard liked life, he liked existence, and he felt sympathy for those suffering. He would have liked to change reality itself to remove all hurt and violence from it, but a shift that drastic would do little more than collapse existence in on itself, and that wasn't a much better option. He'd step in at little points and do what he could without twisting reality too much, but ultimately, unless he was willing to end literally everything, he couldn't end all suffering.

But, that didn't mean he couldn't be a good friend to a mortal being.

General Anxiety Disorder, that's what humans of this time called it, and that's what Toris had. Eduard could sense the heavy, tense air around him at all times, even when he was in happier, lighter moods. Maybe that's why he befriended him, to see if he, with all his cosmic power, could do anything to help him cope.

For a while, he helped like a mortal would. He was a patient listener and a shoulder to cry on, a voice of reason during panic attacks and a comforting presence on especially tense days. He had soothing words and gentle hugs and hot cups of tea. Toris never really _got_ better, but he _coped_ better, he didn't suffer alone, and that much made him happier.

It was always the future. That's what always made Toris panic: Will I still have this job next year? What if I get laid off? What if I get injured and can't work or pay the bills? What if I get injured and _die?_ What if what if what if what if...

It spiraled and twisted and spun round and round in his head until these thoughts consumed him, and Eduard could see it happening every time, his ancient yet ageless heart clenching in sympathy. This, he decided, was a case to step into. 

He invited Toris over to his apartment one Friday evening. It had been a rough week for the mortal man, not because of anything particularly going wrong, but stress dreams piling on top of his waking anxieties had left his nerves shot and his mind frazzled. 

"How long have we known each other?" Eduard asked casually after dinner, as he left their plates in the sink.

At the table, running his thumb around the rim of his glass, Toris smiled softly. "Oh, it's been ages."

"But, how long, exactly?" Eduard asked, taking his seat adjacent to Toris and folding his fingers. "Do you remember how we met?"

"Of course, we met at..."

Toris blinked, and his smile slipped a little. His brow furrowed, his expression puzzled as he thought hard. "We met..."

The truth was, they never "met." When Eduard injected himself into this world at this point, he also did so into the minds of everyone around him. All his neighbors and coworkers knew Eduard Von Bock well, but ask any of them when he moved in or started working, and none of them would be able to answer.

"Toris? Can you look at me for a second?"

Toris glanced up at Eduard. He looked perturbed, a little frightened, probably panicking a bit because of the assumed gap in his memory.

Eduard lifted a hand to his face, brushing aside his bangs. He had to be quick, and he had to be careful. Once Toris made contact with his third eye, he wouldn't be able to look away, doomed to go mad from staring into it and seeing all of existence. Eduard didn't want that, he just wanted to reassure his friend. One little peek should do it.

Toris's green eyes went wide as they were captured by the bottomless black gaze staring back at him. There was shock, then fear, and then, there was wonder. Eduard didn't show him everything, but he did show him what he needed to know. Eduard watched his face closely, saw him seeing the promotion he was getting next month, the helper dog he was going to get in a few years, the vacation he was going to take where he'd meet the love of his life, the children they'd raise together, their home in the countryside, the places he would visit, the things he would learn and see, the people he would meet and befriend and love, the life he would live, and the gentle, peaceful death he would have, old and wise and happy, passing away in his sleep.

It was less than a second before he dropped his hand, letting his bangs fall back into place and breaking contact with Toris's eyes. Toris stared a moment longer, not seeing reality again just yet. He gazed blankly at Eduard's face for a moment, before blinking and smiling.

"I'm sorry, what we're just talking about? I zoned out for a second there."

"You were telling me about your roommates in college."

"Oh, that's right! Well, anyways, Gilbert never knew how to say no to a dare so he was already half way up the flag pole by the time I got there..."

Eduard listened and observed, seemingly smiling at the story, but he was seeing deeper than that. Toris remembered nothing of what he's just seen, not consciously at least. 

Often, when mortal gaze landed on something they couldn't comprehend, it would lead to madness. Sometimes, eventually, the mind would cope, and what had been seen would be forced back into the deep, forgotten parts of the brain to preserve the mortal's mental health. The mortal would return to relative normalcy, but with a lingering sensation in the back of the mind, faint dreams or odd out-of-place memories, the nagging feeling that they'd forgotten something.

The glimpse that Toris had just seen, the split-second of eternity Eduard had shown him, was not enough to break his mind, and just enough to be automatically buried in his subconscious to keep him sane. Essentially, his conscious mind had forgotten everything. But, that subconscious part of him still remembered, and that part of him would always know his future would be bright and happy and full of joy, and whenever his mind spun with anxiety or his dreams were filled with everything that could possibly go wrong, a part of him would know it wasn't going to happen. A part of him would remember what he had been shown, and make it just a bit easier to dismiss his worries and fears, make it just a bit easier to cope, to keep going and face the world just a bit braver, just a bit more confidently.

Eduard didn't need to stay in this world and this life to see how Toris's life would turn out. He knew already what it would be like, but he stuck around anyways.

After all, who else was going to be the best man at his wedding?

**Author's Note:**

> I've always loved the concept of compassionate and friendly monsters, and it's an idea I've explored with monsters of mythology and classic Hollywood horror, but something compelled me to tackle another type of monster. The type that is essentially a god, the type that can drive a mortal mind to insanity just by hearings its true name. Good ol' Lovecraftian horror, full of monsters the human mind cannot comprehend and the names of which cannot be spoken. Can I make a monster like that into a sympathetic character, or a character that feels sympathy? I sure as heck tried, and this little ficlet is the result of being awake too late and waking up too early, brought about by the frustrations of stress dreams and stomach aches. And as always, Hetalia is my favorite series to explore AUs with, and Monstertalia is my favorite AU to explore. And why Estonia? Well, aside from the fact that "Eduard the Eldtritch Abomination" just has a nice ring to it, he's been on my mind a lot lately considering I'll be studying there by the end of this month, and, really, I feel like if he had all cosmic power and knowledge, he'd do some nice things with it.


End file.
